Social Life in Ancient India: Studies in Vatsyayana's Kamasutra c6.52

c6.52

Kālidāsa's Vankṣu is the Oxus in Bactria of saffron¹. Amara in his lexicon speaks of the yellow variety of the saffron grown in the Bāhlīka country,² and Kṣīrasvāmin, the earliest commentator of Amara, assures us that this Bāhlīka saffron was referred to by Kālidāsa.³ Yuan Chwang also speaks of saffron (Curcuma = kuṅkuma, saffron) grown in the country about this region.⁴ There can, therefore, be no doubt that the country about Balkh and reaching up to the Oxus was known as the Bāhlīka country at the time of Kālidāsa, that is, according to our calculations, about two centuries later than Vātsyāyana⁵